Russell Baze closes in on next milestone
The accolade of the best jockey in the world is almost impossible to bestow unequivocally. Everyone with a view brings their own, subjective, criteria to the decision-making process.
It may be the rider who claims the greatest haul of the sport’s glittering prizes or who forms a partnership with one of the great horses. Russell Baze has accomplished neither but he is on the threshold of another achievement that is beyond dispute as he closes in on his 11,000th winner.
The career-record for jockeys has been mainly the preserve of American jockeys for the last 50 years. Johnny Longden, Bill Shoemaker, and Laffit Pincay Jnr had all set the record for the most winners which Longden had claimed at 4,871 in 1956 – taking over from British legend Sir Gordon Richards - and set the next benchmark of 6,032 when he retired 10 years later. By then Shoemaker was already hammering home the winners and he took the record to 8,833 before retiring in 1990 from where Pincay lifted it to the mark of 9,530 when he finally had to quit the saddle through injury in 2003.
In December 2006 Baze eclipsed that figure but was hardly at the top of the mountain long enough to enjoy the view before he was knocked off his lofty perch by Jorge Ricardo and the Brazilian broke the 10,000-winner barrier when he stormed to a five-timer, from seven rides, at the Hipodromo San Isidro, in Buenos Aires in December 2007 before passing the winning post first for the 10,000th time the following month.
Since then Baze and Ricardo have vied for the record although Ricardo lost ground last year when was kept out of the saddle for two months in the spring with a fractured skull and then he took five months off while undergoing chemotherapy treatment for low-grade lymphoma.
Baze is now in touching distance of his latest milestone. The Hall of Fame jockey needed four more wins to be become the first rider to reach 11,000 in a career after Goggles McCoy won the Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar on Wednesday. But while this latest achievement will set him apart from the others Baze is already set apart because of his understated career.
There are no Triple Crown or Breeder’s Cup winners on his CV but there will be 11,000 others that make him a standout; even if ever so quietly. This year he rode one of his biggest winners on Bold Chieftain in the Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita, which is still some way from the Olympian heights of a Kentucky Derby or a Breeders’ Cup Classic. Even his Eclipse Award in 1995 was to mark his industry in becoming the first jockey to ride 400 winners in four successive years.
However, it is that indefatigable part of his character that his characterised Baze’s long-haul progress although even he has difficulty contemplating his latest achievement. "When you think about it, that’s a ridiculous number, and yet it is real for me,” he said.
“You know, it hasn't really sunk in. It probably won't until well after I'm retired. Maybe 20 years later I'll look back and put it in some perspective. I'm just a guy who is lucky enough to be doing something I love. To have enough ability to do it well, and have had enough luck where I've been able to avoid the big injuries and losing a lot of time. It's just all worked out.”
The vast majority of his winners in a 36-year career have been gained on the northern California circuit which he has dominated with an almost iron grip and Baze looks likely to hit the mark on home territory at the Santa Rosa meeting – where he won the fourth race on Waltzing Swan yesterday - which, according to his long-time agent Ray Harris, is just how the jockey wants it. “This is a special place for Russell and his family,” Harris said. “His family comes up from the Bay Area and he has a lot of good memories of Santa Rosa and the people up here. It would be great to get the 11,000th in front of a full grandstand. It would mean a lot to us.”
Perhaps not the best jockey in the world but the jockey that they all have to match.
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